Watertight Wickery Predates Ceramics

'First Nation People' in North America, here  Native Californians didn’t have pots and pans to use  before Europeans contact and the consequent destruction of their way of life and cultural landscapes. Many 'First Nation cultures' – Australian Aboriginal & Polynesian peoples for instance – did not have access to ceramic technologies either. So, how do you cook, if your culture doesn’t use pots? 

Along with other culture, Native Californian people are famous virtuosos of basketry. One basket might well take many months to complete, and is woven with many native plant materials that, themselves, take long hours of work to harvest and process. This basket depicted here is as watertight as any pot and is woven in a traditional Miwok style. 

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Similarly Australian Aboriginal 'Top End' people developed 'wickery' [LINK] bags that are designed to be watertight once soaked – there's Milena of history here.

Interesting so-call 'alternative culture' in the Western world have somewhat romantically picked up on the technology with this video.

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\In Tasmania the First Tasmanians are reviving traditional palawa culture.  tayenebe, a Tasmanian Aboriginal word meaning ‘exchange’, celebrates the revitalisation of Tasmanian Aboriginal weaving that has been taking place in recent years. While the woven baskets may not be water tight the related vessels made from kelp would have worked in unisome in food gathering and preparation.[LINK]

Zulu Ukhamba baskets, also called Zulu beer baskets or Zulu pot baskets, are known for their beauty and durability. They are woven from coiled grasses wrapped with strips of Ilala palm leaves, and dyed with extracts from local vegetation. The waxiness of the palm fiber, along with its tendency to swell when wet, helps make the baskets watertight. Traditionally, the Zulu used them for storing and transporting water, or homemade beer, and the slight leaks worked to the advantage of keeping the liquids cool.

Currently these baskets are more likely to be used for decoration Zulu households given the increasing availability of cheap plastic and metal containers.

 

And there we go, celebrants and adherents to 'the colonial project', thinking that the industrial era, had and has, given them/us/whoever a head start in the survival race. It seems that it turns out that before there were pots and pan there had always been the designed possibility of a ''cool drink' [LINK]